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Friday, February 1, 2013

THE MOVEMENT OF THE SPHERES

THE MOVEMENT OF THE SPHERES

Here’s what the average person knows of the larger motions
of the universe at present, if they pay a lick of attention to the news and don't live on a total backwater world.

For the past hundred years, there had been peace, a
practical golden age—at least, that’s what the Empire’s propagandists would
want you to believe. For five hundred years prior the Eared Empire had spread
using their candy-ships and ability to use magic to phase through the
previously impenetrable Crystal Spheres protecting worlds into the astral sea
beyond, and they had begun to conquer worlds. Usually they did so peacefully,
offering trade and technology in exchange for loyalty. Sometimes there was
violence, but this was always covered up later, the historians re-writing it to
make the Empire seem peaceful.

There were dissidents, of course; the tiny outpost of
Traverse Town, a mere asteroid, was a haven for criminal scum seeking a way to
avoid the Empire.

A hundred years ago, a second power arrived on the scene—Radiant
Garden. The Garden had a vastly different kind of technology, based on charged
crystal cores and ships with mithiril hulls. At first, they fought mightily
with the Empire, a bloody conflict that even Imperial propagandists could not
cover up, but eventually they came to an uneasy peace The Garden spread
throughout its own space, conquering much as the Empire had, and eventually the
two nations came to an understanding, even trading with each other.

Ten years ago, everything changed.

The Garden had reached a peak of unprecedented prosperity
and glory, with their scientist-king, Ansem the Wise, ruling over it all with a
gentle hand and wise heart. The truce between the Empire and the Garden had
gone from uneasy to truly friendly alliance, thanks to a budding friendship
between King Mortimer of the Empire and King Ansem. The Empire under Mortimer’s
hand had even begun to slow its colonization efforts.

Then, on one horrific, bloody day, the Garden ceased to
exist.

The survivors of the destruction tell it this way: they were
uneasy for the whole year before. People had been disappearing at an alarming
rate, first criminals, then servants, then many people. Ansem had vowed to find
the source of these vanishings, but nothing ever came of it. Then on that day
the ground split, the sky darkened, and a huge black dragon’s wings blotted out
the sky. From the cracks in the earth poured black shadowy creatures the likes
of which had never been seen. They set upon the people of Radiant Garden and
tore out their hearts, and grew stronger, while more black beasts poured from
the hole in their corpses and those corpses turned to white ash. Far out in the
fleet, pilots reported more of the beasts chewing away at the Crystal Sphere,
previously thought to be indestructible. Though the military of the Garden
fought bravely, they were not enough to stop the Garden from falling into
darkness. Eventually, the whole planet shook itself to pieces, whole shards
falling into black portals, and the castle which dominated the skyline of the
capital city became twisted and misshapen, a mere shell of what it once was—a Hollow
Bastion. The corruption spread to the colony worlds, with thousands more dying
on that awful day. Ansem the Wise was dead; his heart devoured by the beasts.

Different parties were blamed. Some said it was the Empire,
finally eliminating their only true rival; others pointed to the black dragon,
it had to have been Maleficent’s doing. Others said that it was divine
punishment for hubris. Whatever the cause, the Garden was gone… and then things
got worse.

The Heartless plague spread like wildfire. Countless worlds
were destroyed, billions died, before roaming Gnomish wizards found protective
spells and barriers that could hold the beasts off for a time. King Mortimer
vanished, leaving his queen behind; she was discredited when she continued to
defend Mortimer’s actions, saying that he had gone in search of a powerful
magic to save them all. Now the Empire itself is divided into two factions:
Queen Millicent, who believes that Mortimer will return to save them all, and
Reagent Percy, who sits on the Eared Throne in Mortimer’s stead, who holds that
the King has abandoned his people, and that brutal and swift action is what is
needed to end the Heartless threat.

Meanwhile, Traverse Town has become instead simply Traverse,
as it was discovered that when a world dies, fragments of it appear in the
area, fusing into each other into a strange and twisted city of nonsensical
proportions. It is a refugee shantytown free of all laws, where businessmen can
operate without the eyes of the Empire upon them… or where heroes can rise to
the task of saving us all.

There are rumors that the Enchanted Three--that is, the
three Princesses of the Enchanted Dominions, an autonomous colony world
affiliated with the Empire—may hold part of the key to saving the world, that
they may be three of the fabled Seven Princesses of Purest Heart. But that’s
only a legend…

Just as the Keyblade Masters, ancient warriors of a lost
order, are surely mere myth. There are no ancient weapons which were held
against the Darkness in the past, and they will not appear again. Surely…